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❛ ᴇᴡᴛʀᴛᴡ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ᴊᴜᴅɢᴇ, ᴊᴜʀʏ &
ᴇxᴇᴄᴜᴛɪᴏɴᴇʀ ꒱


❝ THAT'S A TERRIBLE IDEA ❞

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"Next case, please!"

Jimin looked to the far end of the room where a large desk stood in a mock representation of an Earthly courtroom. A woman sat behind it, looking out to the rows of nearly-empty benches. Their female guard ushered them forward, pushing Loki onto the podium while indicating that Jimin should take a seat.

"Laufeyson. Variant L1130, a.k.a Loki Laufeyson, is charged with sequence violation 7-20-89. How do you plead?"

The god chuckled, still unwilling to take their charade seriously. "Madam, a god doesn't plead. Look, this has been a very enjoyable pantomime but I'd like to go home now."

"Are you guilty or not guilty, sir?" she repeated, not taking his roundabout answer for a second.

Loki scoffed. "Guilty of being the God of Mischief? Yes. Guilty of finding all this incredibly tedious? Yes. Guilty of a crime against the Sacred Timeline? Absolutely not, you have the wrong person."

"Oh?" the judge questioned with fake interest. "And who should we have?"

"I suspect the Avengers," he answered promptly. "You see, I only came into possession of the Tesseract because they traveled through time, no doubt in a last-ditch effort to stave off my ascent to God-King."

Jimin couldn't resist a quiet snort at his words and the Asgardian turned to fix her with an irritated glare before he returned his attention to the other woman, who remained nonplussed by his statement. "That's quite an accusation."

"Oh, believe me, you can smell the cologne of two Tony Starks." 

(Jimin wasn't at all surprised by this fact. Something had seemed suspicious about that soldier, though it hadn't been her job to investigate that situation.)

Movement from behind her caused the Agent to turn and she watched an older, gray-haired man creep silently to an empty bench. He caught her gaze and put a quiet finger to his lips, nodding to the current proceedings. Jimin faced forward again. Unsurprisingly, Loki was still talking. "You speak of Time criminals? It's them you should be after. Perhaps you could provide me with a taskforce and resources and I could return and eliminate them for you."

"We're not here to talk about the Avengers," the judge told him sternly.

"Oh, no?"

"No. What they did was supposed to happen. You escaping was not."

The Asian woman let out a discreet breath as Loki laughed obnoxiously again, the sound quickly getting on her nerves. The god tried to bluster his way through another response. "Right. Uh. . . 'not supposed to happen?' According to whom?'"

"The Time-Keepers?"

"Oh, the Time-Keepers, right," he said with exaggerated realization. "Well, perhaps I should speak to these Time-Keepers, gods to gods."

"I'm sorry, but they're quite busy," the judge replied easily.

"Oh, they are? What are they doing?"

"Dictating the proper flow of time."

"I see, right. And then what is it that you do?" Loki questioned her.

"Dictate the proper flow of time according to their dictations." It was clear to see that her patience was thinning. "How do you plead?"

"Guilty. . ." he paused, lifting his arms and spreading his fingers. "Of this." 

He clenched his hands into fists as if he had expected something to happen. The employees in the room let out sounds of stifled laughter as he tried again but to no avail. The judge gave him a confused look. "What's going on?"

"Hang on, everyone quiet," the god ordered.

Their guard chuckled. "He's trying to use his powers, ma'am."

"Don't rush me," Loki snapped, slamming his hands against the podium's barrier as he failed again. "Dammit, why won't it work?"

"Magic powers? They're no good in the T.V.A., Mr. Laufeyson," the judge informed him. "The court finds you guilty and I sentence you to be reset."

While this whole time business had been a whirlwind of strange events, Jimin knew that being reset meant nothing good and she still had her job to do. She stood abruptly. "Objection!"

The judge turned her gaze on the Agent. "Please wait your turn, Miss—"

"Agent," Jimin corrected her sharply.

"Agent—"

"No, no, let her speak," Loki interrupted the woman eagerly. "Give her a chance."

The Asian woman barely spared him a glance as she kept her eyes fixed on the judge, who sighed. "Very well. On what grounds?"

"May I approach the bench?"

"If you must."

Jimin folded her hands behind her back and walked towards the desk at a purposeful pace, looking up at the woman who sat behind it. "Do you consider yourself the judge, jury and executioner, Judge—?"

"Renslayer."

"Right. Judge Renslayer?" the brunette asked, stopping in front of Loki. "While you might hide under the veil of being a time-keeping organization, you are just as bureaucratic as any Earthly institute. You pretend to follow a traditional system by giving those a chance to defend themselves before being sentenced but no matter what they say. I can see that there is already a predetermined outcome. We all will, in the end, be reset, as you said."

"Is there a point, Agent Hui?" the judge demanded impatiently.

"Yes," Jimin conceded. "Why not drop us off at the place where we first strayed from the timeline? I can prevent Loki from getting the Tesseract and return him to S.H.I.E.L.D custody which was my original intention."

"Never mind, don't listen to her," the god cut in hurriedly. "That's a terrible idea."

"I'm sorry," Judge Renslayer said, not sounding remotely so as she ignored the Asgardian. "You have already altered the course of events and any damage that you made has now been corrected. Please return to your seat until your trial."

Two guards approached the Asgardian and manhandled him off the podium despite his protests. Jimin shot the woman an annoyed look; if there was one thing that made her purposely calm demeanor falter, it was pompous, arrogant, holier-than-thou people like the two she was currently dealing with.

Loki wasn't pleased with the outcome either. "Hey! You ridiculous bureaucrats will not dictate how my story ends!"

"It's not your story, Mr. Laufeyson. It never was."

"You have no idea what I'm capable of!"

The man who'd arrived earlier stood. "I. . . I think I might. Have an idea of what they're capable of."

"Approach the bench," the judge ordered.

He did as he was told, stopping closer than Jimin had to have a whispered conversation with the woman, the only words that the Agent could hear being "bad idea." The man turned to face the irritated god and ruffled woman. 

"And who are you?" Loki asked, only receiving a smile in response.

✧ ✧ ✧ 

"I'm gonna burn this place to the ground," Loki grumbled as they left the courtroom.

"While I try to prevent chaos, I will not hesitate to tear down any corrupt organizations," Jimin agreed.

"I'll show you two where my desk is, you guys can start there," the man said with amusement.

They paused at the edge of the balcony, which caused Loki's attention to turn to the vast expanse of gilded buildings. The man noticed his interest. "Have a look."

Spires and odd shapes were prominent throughout the vast area giving it a very space-age-y theme. Floating vehicles made steady progress through the air and advancements that Earth could never hope to replicate made it feel like Jimin had stepped into the future.

"I thought there was no magic here," Loki observed.

"There isn't," was the response.

The Agent turned away from the mesmerizing scene and murmured darkly, "all that glitters is not gold."

"Shakespeare," the man nodded appreciatively.

"That's not real," the god added.

"It is," he countered, "and, unfortunately, so is all the paperwork. Good tinder for your fire, though. Come on."

"This place is a nightmare," Loki complained as they resumed their path.

"That's another department. Now, that one I'll help you burn down."

✧ ✧ ✧ 

The trio entered an elevator and turned to face the closing doors. Loki and Jimin stood against the far wall while the still-unnamed man stood in front of them, though that was soon to be changed. "I'm Agent Mobius, by the way."

He stuck his hand out, though the Asian woman only responded with a raised eyebrow, her tone condescending as she repeated, "Agent?"

"Not like you," Mobius said with a faint chuckle. "Far less punchy-punchy." He dropped his hand when no one took it.

"Are you taking us somewhere to kill us?" Loki demanded.

"No, that's where you just were. I'm taking you two somewhere to talk."

"I don't like to talk," the god argued, earning a disbelieving look from Jimin. "I don't."

"Right, and I'm Captain America."

"That's not far off from the truth with your self-righteous attitude," the Asgardian shot back. "Thank you, by the way, for saving me from my condemned fate. I'm perfectly capable of protecting myself— not that what you did was in any way successful." 

"Well, maybe it would've been if you weren't such an ass," the woman retorted. "If you—" 

"Hey, hey, hey, can we please focus here?" Mobius cut in, not wanting to listen to their arguing. "What you do like to do is lie, which you just did because we all know you love to talk," he addressed the god, making his hand mime mouth movements. "Talkie-talkie—"

Jimin's smug expression made the god glower at her for a moment before he returned to the man. "How long have you been working here?"

"I don't know, it's hard to say. Time passes differently here in the T.V.A.," he explained.

"What does that mean?"

The elevator doors opened and they began to walk down another hallway. Jimin rearranged her face into its expressionless mask again, not wanting to give the Agent (personally, she wasn't impressed) the upper hand. Loki was proving himself wrong by continuing to bombard Mobius with questions: "so, you're part of the T.V.A.'s courageous and dedicated workforce?"

"Yes."

"You were created by the time-keepers?"

"Yep."

"To protect the Sacred Timeline?"

"Correct."

"The idea that your little club decides the fate of trillions of people across all of existence at the behest of three. . . space lizards, it's funny. It's absurd," Loki rambled.

Mobius paused, tilting his head to one side. "I thought you didn't like to talk."

They finally reached their destination of an entrance with double doors that Mobius pulled open. He let the two variants through first before following them, shutting the door behind him.

Unlike the main floor, this room had far less orange and instead went with gray walls, one of them backlit to show a tiled pattern. The floor was still orange despite the red table and chairs sitting in the middle of the otherwise empty room. The pair stopped while Mobius continued forward. 

"For the record, this really does feel like a killing-me kind of room," Loki observed.

Jimin had to agree, having seen more than her fair share of similar setups. The man remained unconcerned. "Not big on trust, are you?"

"Trust is for children and dogs. There's only one person you can trust," the god followed the Agent hesitantly towards the chairs.

"Yourself?" Mobius finished. "I like it. Slap it on a t-shirt."

"If the T.V.A. truly oversees all of time, how have I never heard of you until now?"

The man worked with the device sitting on the table as he answered, "you never needed to. You've always lived within your set path."

"I live within whatever path I choose," Loki countered.

"I tend to believe in destiny, not fate," Jimin added, still remaining at the top of the stairs.

Mobius offered one of the two seats to the Asgardian, who went to follow his direction. The man pulled out a similar device that their guard had and sent Loki back several feet. "Told you, time moves differently in the T.V.A.," he gestured to the chairs again.

The god hesitantly sat while Jimin watched the man warily as she approached more slowly, unwillingly relieved when she didn't get the same treatment. Mobius turned to face the projector. "Right then, ladies first?"